Christmas in Bayberry

If things didn’t turn around soon, people would be receiving pink slips this year in their stockings instead of bonuses. Kate prayed the email campaign she’d started online would take off. Otherwise, she had the feeling that Mr. Wesley Adams would be playing the part of Ebenezer Scrooge this Christmas.

Chapter Five

The next morning, Kate rushed to get ready for work, which resulted in another time-saving messy bun. Before work started, she planned to put up the office Christmas tree. It would lighten the mood around the office. With the mechanical malfunctions of late, employees were a bit down.

The tree was where everyone placed their grab bag gifts. And then, on the last day of work before the holiday, they opened them. Some were funny, some were sweet, but no matter what, they brought a smile to everyone’s face.

And though financial trouble was brewing in the background, Kate wasn’t going to let it overshadow the holiday for everyone. Wearing a red and white sweater and a pair of dark jeans, she rushed to grab her red coat with the Rudolph pin on the lapel that Aunt Penney had given her for Christmas years ago. She pulled on boots, wrapped a white hand-knit scarf around her neck, and pulled on matching gloves as she rushed out the door.

The air was extra crisp that morning. Kate turned up the collar on her jacket and snuggled deeper in her coat. But as she took in the Christmas decorations in the neighbors’ yards—reindeer, snowmen and other lawn ornaments—she was soon distracted from the cold.

She neared the town square and caught the time on the clock. It was ten till seven. She wouldn’t have much time to decorate before work. When she neared the Steaming Brew, she hesitated. There was no way she could be in and out of there in a couple of minutes. By the looks of the line, it was going to take at least five minutes to place her order. And that was five minutes she didn’t have.

With a frustrated groan, Kate kept walking. Sometimes sacrifices had to be made. But her morning coffee…ugh!

She forced a smile as she passed Bayberry residents and said good morning. She just needed her morning dose of caffeine and she’d feel more like her chipper self.

When she reached the office, she decided to grab the boxes of decorations from storage before she moved to the kitchen to start the coffee. After all, she had to pass by storage on the way in, and the kitchen was at the other side of the building.

She slipped off her coat and switched from her boots to her indoor shoes. Then she made her way to the storage room. When she opened the door, she was surprised by how much stuff had been shoved in there. Sure, she’d been in here many times over the years, but she’d never slowed down to take inventory of how many boxes had collected over the years.

The storage room wasn’t that large, and fortunately, Aunt Penney had insisted that each box be marked. Kate’s gaze moved from top to bottom of the first shelving unit. No Christmas boxes. She moved to the next shelves and scanned down to the bottom row. Nope, Halloween decorations. She continued to the end of the row.

She turned around to look at the next set of shelves—and there they were. She lifted them off the shelf, stacking them on the floor. There were more Christmas boxes here than she’d expected. And it was too narrow and dim in the storage room to sort through them here. She’d take them to her office. Holding two cardboard boxes, she headed out the door and hurried down the hallway, anxious to get the tree trimmed.

When she reached her office doorway, her gaze landed on the cluttered desk. This was not at all how she normally kept it. A frown pulled at her lips. She’d forgotten that she’d been temp

orarily evicted.

She turned and stacked the boxes in the hallway. Knowing time was ticking by, she kept moving. It took a number of trips, but finally she had moved all of the boxes next to the fresh-cut tree that had been delivered yesterday.

In the background, Christmas carols played from speakers placed throughout the building. As the lyrics to “The Twelve Days of Christmas” filled the air, Kate sang along. Absorbed in her task, she grabbed a folding chair to reach the top of the tree. Standing on it, she still couldn’t reach the upper branches. She climbed down and yawned as she rushed to the janitor’s room.

Kate grabbed a stepladder and headed back to the tree. Except the ladder took up a lot more space, so the boxes had to be moved once more. She set to work wrapping the tree in white lights from the top to the bottom. Usually there was more than one person decorating the tree, but this year, with the mechanical delays, everyone was rushing to get ready for the biggest sale ever.

Still, that meant Kate had to move the ladder back and forth as the tree was much too large to reach around it. She’d just gotten to the middle section when employees started to arrive. Luckily, not many people came in this direction.

“Good morning, Kate.” MaryJane Harris stopped to admire the tree. She tucked her shoulder-length brown hair behind her ear. “You’re started early. Could you use a hand?”

“If you don’t mind, it’d make stringing the rest of the lights easier.”

“Sure.” MaryJane’s mouth lifted at the corners. “Let me just put my things in your office—oh, wait, I forgot that guy kicked you out of your office. Can you believe him?”

“It wasn’t his fault.” Kate couldn’t believe she was defending him.

MaryJane snorted. “Who is he, anyhow? An auditor? A tax guy?”

Not wanting to get into this with MaryJane, who was the sweetest lady, but a talker—a big talker—Kate said, “I don’t know exactly what he’s doing.” Which was sort of true. “He’s working with Aunt Penney.”

MaryJane sighed as she laid her belongings over a box. “If you ask me, he’s trouble.”

“That’s not fair. He’s not here to cause problems.” At least she hoped not. Kate handed her a strand of lights. “He’s just here to do his job, like you and me.”

“Hmph. We’ll see.”

Kate didn’t want to talk about Wes any longer. In fact, the less she thought about him and his mission, the happier she became. “How’s your Christmas shopping coming?”

It didn’t take much to distract MaryJane. Her eyes lit up as she talked about her young sons. She was thrilled that she’d scored this year’s hottest toy: a walking, talking, game-playing robot. In no time, the lights were on the tree. Kate plugged them in. MaryJane made a couple of adjustments and then stood back to admire their work.